Media Talk.

Nbc Counts On `Later Today' To Pay Dividends As The Day Goes On

August 15, 1999|By Jim Kirk.

An overly eager Jodi Applegate, the soon to be "Later Today" host, was in town from the East Coast early Thursday, making the rounds on NBC-Ch. 5's morning newscasts and, perhaps more important, visiting with some key local advertising clients.

With her came a message of hope for the network's beleaguered daytime lineup--that the mass audience success of NBC's "Today" show will, so the plan goes, be extended an hour longer, with "Later Today."

Talk about your pressure cookers.

This lid is on tight and the heat is turned up to high on Applegate, who will spend the next three weeks or so filling in for news anchor Ann Curry and "Today" co-host Katie Couric before starting "Later Today" on Sept. 7.

The strategy of the pre-Labor Day tour of duty on the mother ship, of course, is to introduce Applegate to the daily "Today" audience.

The hope, though, is that Applegate, along with TV reporter and anchor Asha Blake and the former Mrs. Brady, Florence Henderson, will entice the audience into sampling and eventually staying with what promises to be an even lighter version of "Today."

And that's a significant challenge at a time when broadcasters are having trouble figuring out what viewers want.

The show's producers have said that "Later Today"--which will air from 9-10 a.m. weekdays--will be a mix of news, entertainment and "issue-related" segments, such as medical and parenting advice and other things targeted almost squarely at the stay-at-home mom.

"It's the type of show I would watch if I were home during the day," says Applegate, a 35-year-old Pittsburgh native who three years ago was toiling away with a successful morning show in the second-tier market of Phoenix.

But "Later Today" will face a daunting challenge in Chicago--it will be up against a ratings juggernaut in "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Channel 7.

Nevertheless, for Larry Wert, president and general manager of Channel 5, "Later Today" is a network show that could be a much-welcomed bright spot.

Although he has made up significant ground in the early morning with his local newscasts, including beating out Channel 7 for two ratings periods in a row at 5:30 a.m., much of Channel 5's audience falls away when the "Today Show" signs off.

During the May Nielsen ratings period, "Today" averaged a 3.8 rating and a 13 share in Chicago on Channel 5. But from the end of "Today" at 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., the main daytime rotation, Channel 5 averaged a 1.9 rating and a 6 share.

Each rating point equals roughly 31,640 households. Share is the percentage of TVs in use.

Though the audience comes back later, the drop-off does nothing for Wert's 11 a.m. newscast. And his afternoon newscasts could benefit from bigger lead-in audiences.

"We've had success in the front and back ends in terms of news programming," Wert said. "And we've had challenges in daytime. So we clearly have great upside potential."

But NBC isn't alone in trying to grab the attention of viewers in what has become a more fragmented and fickle audience during the day.

"It's a very elusive audience, especially with the advent of cable TV," says Kathryn Thomas, supervisor of TV programming for Starcom Media, the media-buying arm of Chicago-based Leo Burnett Co. "Daytime broadcasting is a menagerie of programming, and more people are out of the house than ever before. Stay-at-home moms are more active, so (for broadcasters), it's catch as catch can."

And this is the main challenge for Applegate, who was plucked from Phoenix in 1996 after NBC News President Andy Lack saw her morning show while he was in Arizona for the Super Bowl.

Lack liked what he saw, and Applegate soon found herself anchoring the "Weekend Today" network show.

She says she's not daunted by the pressure being placed on "Later Today" to succeed in extending the "Today" show audience.

"The `Today' show has had a lot of success. It starts with hard news and evolves so that by the end of the show, you're jumping around with Hootie and the Blowfish," she says. "The audience will take that trip with you, so long as you don't mix the elements together."

Applegate claims that "Later Today" will pick up where "Today" leaves off, continuing the feel of "Today" in its looks and tempo.

Set in its own newly constructed, dedicated studio, complete with an audience and kitchen, "Later Today" looks to put even less emphasis on news than does the preceding show, though both are overseen by NBC's news department.

That's not to say when a major story is unfolding that Applegate won't be able to break in and deliver hard news.

But the transition from viewers who want mainly news to viewers who want more feature stories and lighter programming is fairly significant after 9 a.m.

"At that time of day, we know that people are less interested in hard news," she says.

Indeed.

And from a business standpoint, the main hope around NBC is that people will be interested in seeing more "Today."